Some useful tips
With the sailing season finally getting going in nearly all parts of the US,
Canada, and Europe, many of our sailors will be racing this summer in mixed
fleets (Portsmouth or otherwise). The following is an attempt to shorten the
learning curve and get you going fastâfast. When your Swift is being sailed
well and is properly set up, it should feel like a high quality sports car.
When poorly set upâespecially in a blow, a dogsled hitched to a pack of
hungry hyenas. Remember, the on-the-water adjustability of the rig is one of
the
keys to allowing us to carry such a large sail plan. The auto sheeting
system is the other. You do need to take advantage of this adjustability.
Let's start with setup in various conditions:
In lighter conditions you'll be looking for power (4 to 11 knots of breeze
for most of us). After you pull your rig on with primaries set at 24 and
caps at 10 on the Loos gauge, adjust your lowers so that the bottom of the
mast
is dead straight or slightly inverted. After hoisting the sails, adjust the
Cunningham so that the diagonal wrinkles just come out of the sailâno
further. Your vang should be pulled on fairly hard. At this point, the
bottom of
your mast should have only a small amount of bend. Once sailing, make sure
that all of your telltales are breaking at the same timeâtop and bottom of
both
sails.
Stay forward going to weather. You should be just barely aft of the shrouds
and in really light air and flat water, you may want to have your forward
foot forward of the shrouds while sitting in your harness (squatting on the
gunwale when necessary). When you get small gusts, don't over-respond. It's
fine to let the boats heel a bit initially and then bring it flat slowly.
Otherwise, flat is always fast except in really light air.
After hoisting the kite, you'll have to decided how high to sail. If the
wind is above 8 knots the decision is easy. Go as high as you can and trapeze
(hike) hard from about halfway back from the shrouds, depending on how big
the waves are. Below 8 knots, play the waves and try to sense what angle is
faster. Continue to move fore and aft to take advantage of the waves. As the
wind increases to near 11 knots, move further aft.
As the wind increases from 12 to 25 knots you'll want to makes changes in
this order, to de-power a bit. The first thing is to lower yourself right
down on the trapeze. This provides some additional righting moment all the
time
but the real benefit is the increased righting moment during gusts when a
higher trapeze causes you to loose most of your leverage as the boat heels.
Second, pull the Cunningham on harder and sail a bit further off the wind.
This will significantly flatten the main and soften the leech. Third, Move the
jib track pins out one place to the third hole.
Pull the jib downhaul on a bit at the same time you go to more Cunningham on
the main. This will flatten the jib by tensioning the luff and softening
the leech. Next, move far enough aft to keep the majority of the waves out of
the launcherâno further. If you're still overpowered, let the lowers off
three full turns and the caps about Ââ. This will significantly flatten the
main
and soften the leech. Finally, raise the board about 6â. This will make
the boat more forgiving in the gusts. Finally, try to get strong enough that
you can play the main to weather without cleating it.
I've said nothing about easing the vang for a reason. More Cunningham and
looser lowers will automatically do it for you. I've also found that with
this sequence of changes, you'll find that your jib relativity remains correct
right on up the wind range. We seldom change the relativity now. When the
relativity is wrong, it's usually an indication that lowers and Cunningham
(and
sometimes the vang) are wrong. The exception is really light air.
During the bear away, keep the boat flat or slightly heeled to weather and
move far aft before initiation. No need to let the vang off except if it's
close to 25 knots. Sail high and trapeze (hike) hard downwind. Try to stay
about 2 feet forward of the transom, moving aft as waves require to keep the
bow out. With time, you'll find that the Swift is quite manageable even in 20
to 25 knots of breeze. Above 25 knotsâleave that to the really young guys
or wear a helmet and downhill pads.
Hopefully, this information will make your sailing experience much more fun.
Good sailing and I hope you find this useful.
Bram
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